In the
Platforms article Joel berates Groove Networks
which makes a product which he'd like to build his
application upon. I can see why Joel would like the
Groove folks to make their development platform free
since it means his CityDesk
application gets enhanced functionality with less
development costs for him and probably no price
increases passed on to his users. However, what Joel
fails to do in the article is explain why besides
increasing adoption rates this benefits Groove's
bottom line.

Since we are no longer in the
Dot Bomb Era simply telling a company that giving
away a product for free will garner them more users
sounds like poor business sense. After all, I'm
pretty sure Macy's would get
more customers if they charged $1.00 for everything
they sold regardless of cost to themselves but it
would be a disastrous business plan.

In Joel's article he uses Sun's behavior with Java
as a positive example of how to make a successful
development platform while using Apple's behavior as
a negative example. However, even Joel himself admits
that
Sun's Java strategy is full of mistakes.
Specifically, Sun created a kickass development
platform by improving on already existing concepts
thus commoditizing hardware and operating systems in
a single blow. Although the platform became widely
adopted, Sun really didn't have a sound strategy for
making money from Java except as a very expensive ad
campaign for selling over priced servers. At the
height of the dot bomb boom, sales people could say
"Java is the best development platform and Sun's
expensive hardware/software is the best way to run
it" even though this was never absolutely true it
sold servers. However, now that people actually
carefully scrutinize their purchasing decisions in
the wake of the economic downturn they've realized
that they don't need Sun's expensive server/OS combo
to run Java and now the Java Big Two are IBM and Bea.

The most telling part of the Apple/Sun comparison is
that although
Apple pulled in $1.43 billion in revenue in the
third quarter of the fiscal year versus
Sun who pulled in $3.1 billion in revenue it
turns out that Apple posted a net profit of $.09 per
share against Sun's net loss of $.01 per share.
Looking at it from that perspective, it does seem
that Apple is making smarter business
decisions than Sun and Joel's case isn't as open and
shut as he presents it.

Now for the part of the discussion that reflects the
title of this diary. Yesterday afternoon while
contemplating walking over to Bumbershoot
while sipping on a fine
beverage I couldn't help but consider the
similarities between XML Web Services and Java. Both
marginally improve upon existing technologies but in
key ways that favor simplicity, improved developer
productivity and wide spread interoperability. Both
also reduce the likelihood of vendor lock-in and in
fact tend to favor real competition. I find this
comparison interesting because the primary proponent
of Java ended up not being able to leverage the
technology into profits as much as its competitors
and has been relegated primarily to stewarding the
technology while others make money hand over fist.
Now substitute Java for XML Web Services in the
previous sentence and instead of certain Santa Clara, CA based
company think Redmond,
WA.

So it looks like we are headed for
interesting times and however it turns out, most
likely developers and end users will get cool
technology at less cost than before with fewer
headaches. The only question is who (if any) will end
up making money from it. Knowing my employer, you
know where I've made my bet but it isn't a given that
I picked the right horse. Interesting times indeed.
:)

Disclaimer: The above comments are my
opinions and do not reflect the opinions, plans,
strategies or intentions of my employer

I deleted the full version of this after considering
how nothing on the Internet is private and some
people have already emailed me in the past about
writing about conversations with them without their
permission. Thus what follows is the capsulized
version.

Last night. My girl friend is out of town so given a
choice between going out dancing or working I picked
dancing. Later on I'm dancing with this girl and she
mentions that I'm dancing too close then points at
her ring finger. I immediately oblige and she follows
up with a statement about she's a geek anyway and
works at the same place that I do. Now, one of my
worst work-related fears is one day attending a
meeting or giving a presentation and being asked by
an attendee, "Weren't you the drunk bastard I was
bumping and grinding with last night at club
foobarbaz?". So you may understand why my blood ran
cold upon hearing this.

Anyway, once she announced her affiliation I
nervously asked if she knew me from work. She didn't
but once I mentioned being a co-worker she began to
act like we were old friends. This was after a
barrage of questions to acertain my honesty; "Are you
a blue badge?", "Who's your VP?", "What building do
you work in?", "What product unit?", "Are you an SDE?",
ad nauseum.

It became downright spooky when she began to
rhapsodize about how cool BillG & Paul Flessner
are then about how people like me rock because we
keep her stock price up.

She may have said more but I couldn't hear it given
that I sprinted away.